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Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

wsj.com

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Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#121

Post by Angostura »

bashinator wrote: post #9

I lost my sense of taste a few years ago, from a combination of extreme stress and the flu. Lasted about a week, and it was utterly terrifying. I first noticed it when I tried to eat, iirc scrambled eggs, and couldn't stop gagging on the texture. Once I figured out what was going on, it took a couple days to figure out what I could eat without retching. I ended up being entirely vegetarian - meat without taste is a h…

I lost my sense of smell for about 6 months following a bad cold/ something flu-y. Initially I didn;t really notice - I wasn't enjoying food much, but it was when I was painting a room and realised I couldn't smell paint that I really noticed.

I remember when it came back. Someone made me a cup of tea (I'm British) and I rhapsodised for about 5 minutes about what an excellent cup of tea it was. Up until then, I couldn't really detect any difference between tea and coffee.

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#122

Post by ImaCake »

gambiting wrote: post #106

The thing that people don't realise with virus infections is that it can mess you up for a long time, even if it's not lethal. I've had a human parvovirus B19 infection last year(apparently it's incredibly rare in adults, but hey ho), and yeah, I felt like absolute shit for about 2 months, really high fevers, no appetite, basically like a very bad flu that lasted nearly 2 months, but then once it finally went away, I…

I had a really bad case of strep-throat a few years back and got a similar auto-immune problem afterwards. Never got a proper diagnosis because I looked okay and put on a show of good spirits when talking. But for two months I couldn't leave the house; if I walked further than the kitchen my ankles and knees would swell so much that I would be moaning on my bed in pain for hours. I felt so lonely and so lost from the world. It took a year before the obvious symptoms really dissapeared (but I could hike again after about 4 months) and I still have trouble maintaining joint and muscle strength in my legs after getting a cold or virus.

Now I can appreciate chronic illness and how isolating it is, even if just a little bit. You can have an amazing support network and still fall through the cracks. I am so glad that I still have my health and try not to take it for granted.

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#123

Post by ImaCake »

ttul wrote: post #72
Mikeb85 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I had it. Literally every symptom except loss of taste and smell (but had some other rarer symptoms like the pink eye thing). Also had a cough for like a month, and loss of energy and breath for about a month and a half. Only just recently feel 100%. While it was shitty and lingered a while the worst of it wasn't actually that much worse than a flu for me. Somewhere between the flu and bronchitis on the scale o…

I had the worst cold I've experienced in a decade or more. Absolute loss of energy. Terrible aches; temperature all over the place. This was followed by two months of bronchitis that is still ongoing and failed to respond to two different kinds of antibiotics (the implication being that it's not bacterial). I never got tested because testing was not easy to get in early March; serologies aren't being done yet where I…

There is finally a decent assay for serology so maybe you can get tested soon. It's not one of the "fast" assay kits (those suck) it is a proper laboratory assay (an "ELISA") that requires trained staff or at least an expensive machine to run.

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#124

Post by ImaCake »

jdkee wrote: post #15

There is a lot of evidence for this occurring during the 1918 influenza pandemic. See https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/22/pale-rider-lau...

Flu and common colds are known to cause anosmia. I guess the scale of it is different when its something novel.

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#125

Post by ImaCake »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #16
snazz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any published statistics on how common that is? I wonder what it inflames or irritates that can't come back after the body recovers from the virus.

That's also what I am wondering about. Could it also have a psychological component? (Not making it any less terrifying.)

Not sure why you are being downvoted. Negative placebo effect is real and anosmia (smell blindness) has been making headlines with the 'rona.

To answer the original question: "Postviral olfactory disorders usually occur after an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) associated with a common cold or influenza. With a prevalence between 11 and 40% they are among the common causes of olfactory disorders."

From here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16733337/?from_term=anosmia+...

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#126

Post by ImaCake »

I am congenital for anosmia (that is, I have never had a sense of smell) so I always find discussions about anosmia interesting.

As a contribution: the experiences of never having smelt is very different from the experience of loosing it later in life. The former is something that dawns on the person sometime in their youth when they realise they really can't smell farts. The other is a crushing loss of joy from their lives when they lose the wonderful taste of food, fresh flowers, and "new car smell" (whatever that is!). I never lost these things, I love food, and I like looking at pretty flowers. I am jealous that I don't experience smelling, but I do not miss it because I never had it in the first place.

As a side note, living with anosmia is mildly inconvienient for most. I am paranoid about food going off, and working with flammable gasses is always a little unnerving. Apparently the rates of depression, dysfunctional relationships, and early death are somewhat higher in my cohort. I personally have little trouble with it, and find my condition a useful conversation starter at social events.

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#127

Post by waterside81 »

disillusioned wrote: post #93

I had Covid-19 (confirmed antibodies test, wife had confirmed PCR) in early March. Lost my sense of smell and taste _completely_, almost immediately. I've lost some smell before with bad allergies or a congested nose. This was otherworldly: no smell, at all. Not solvents. Not strong fragrances. Nothing. And this, with a perfectly clear nose. It freaked me out. It lasted for about 2.5 weeks. Around week 3, it started…

Happy to hear you’re doing better. Any idea how you contracted it?

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#128

Post by paulcole »

lurkeyloo wrote: post #77
paulcole wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a good story in the Ben & Jerry’s cookbook about how Ben and Jerry argued about which size chunks of Heath bar to use in their ice cream. They ended up with the perfect mix of little shards and big chunks by freezing a case of Heath bars and throwing it onto the concrete floor from the top of a ladder.

It was my favorite ice cream...wish somebody else sold something similar...

Making your own isn’t hard at all if you have the kitchen space to store a machine. The cheaper ($50-70) ones where you pre-freeze an ice pack are plenty to get started. It really isn’t much more than stirring and then waiting.

• https://www.cuisinart.com/shopping/appliances/ice_cream/ice-...

• https://www.amazon.com/Jerrys-Homemade-Cream-Dessert-Book/dp...

My favorite thing is to get in-season Hood strawberries and mix those into a real vanilla base. So good!

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#129

Post by altacc »

ImaCake wrote: post #126

I am congenital for anosmia (that is, I have never had a sense of smell) so I always find discussions about anosmia interesting. As a contribution: the experiences of never having smelt is very different from the experience of loosing it later in life. The former is something that dawns on the person sometime in their youth when they realise they really can't smell farts. The other is a crushing loss of joy from thei…

Thanks for the insight. I can appreciate the paranoia about not smelling important cues. I once worked in a bio-lab with somebody with anosmia. One day they accidentally split a very noxious chemical without realising until somebody else walked into the room, hit the extraction system into overdrive and pulled them out of the toxic air.

Re: Some coronavirus patients haven't gotten their senses of smell or taste back yet

#130

Post by jryan49 »

disillusioned wrote: post #93

I had Covid-19 (confirmed antibodies test, wife had confirmed PCR) in early March. Lost my sense of smell and taste _completely_, almost immediately. I've lost some smell before with bad allergies or a congested nose. This was otherworldly: no smell, at all. Not solvents. Not strong fragrances. Nothing. And this, with a perfectly clear nose. It freaked me out. It lasted for about 2.5 weeks. Around week 3, it started…

Same exact thing happened to me. I had a negative antibody test.
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